The Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District has been allocated $200,000 by the USDA to conduct stream or riverside tree plantings in our service area. These funds will pay for all aspects of the plantings, from site preparation to the plantings themselves. Applications are due on August 22nd, 2025, for plantings in the summer of 2026. 

Applications for this funding pool has closed.

The Winooski River basin covers approximately 1080 square miles, and accounts for 11.5 percent of Vermont’s land area. The main stem of the Winooski River flows 94 miles from Cabot to Colchester and enters Lake Champlain at an elevation 1,200 feet lower than where it originates. The Basin occupies major parts of Washington and Chittenden Counties and lesser parts of Lamoille, Orange, Caledonia, and Addison Counties. The entire watershed includes fifty towns and is roughly 73% forest, 9% agriculture, 9% surface waters and wetland, 6% field and shrubland, and 3% developed area including roads. This Tactical Basin Plan (TBP) provides a detailed description of current watershed conditions and identifies water quality focused strategies to protect and restore the Basin’s surface waters. Tactical Basin Plan, The Winooski River Basin (Basin 8) Plan

During the basin planning process, stakeholders expressed that unified clean water messaging, technical support and training on how to protect and maintain surface waters, and continued financial and technical support, are all critical to meet water quality goals. There was also a strong sentiment that all waters in the Winooski River Basin should be protected regardless of their current status. Tactical Basin Plan, The Winooski River Basin (Basin 8) Plan

The proposed practices on the proposed reach of the Winooski River will help meet the Winooski River Basin 8 plan in three of it’s targeted land use areas: Agriculture, Rivers and Forest. They will help with meeting the TP reduction goals contributing to meeting the TDL of TP entering Lake Champlain. This local funding pool would concentrate on eroding streambanks of the Winooski River.

In the Winooski basin, loss of river equilibrium is the major contributor of TP loading to Lake Champlain (33.8% of the total load, see Chapter 3). Therefore, the plurality of the TMDL reduction goal for this basin (38.7%) is expected to be met through river regulatory reductions and voluntary projects. Tactical Basin Plan, The Winooski River Basin (Basin 8) Plan

River corridor plans, planting projects, strategic wood additions, Aquatic Organism Passage restoration, and community efforts to regulate floodplain and river corridor development, are examples of some of the tools used to increase river connectivity. Tactical Basin Plan, The Winooski River Basin (Basin 8) Plan

Installation of proposed practices, (see practice list) by farmers/landowner long the project reach will reduce sedimentation of the Winooski River; contributing to lowering the TP, reduce other nutrient transport, improve water quality, and improving fish habitat, by securing up the streambanks.

The Winooski NRCD was awarded funds from the USDA to stabilize river banks in roughly between Waterbury and Richmond. The application period for this funding has closed.